Tag Archives: Treat You Better

Here we are, the top ten songs of the year: nine #1 songs, and one #2 that managed to sneak in there by a handful of points. A mix of artists and genres greet us, sharing one thing in common: I love all of these songs. From pure ballads to pop bops, let’s take a ride on the feel-good freeway to that musical moment we’re all awaiting, my #1 track of 2016…

The 2016 chart year encompasses the period of 52 charts from the list dated December 6, 2015 to the list dated November 27, 2016. Peaks provided reflect the highest position reached by the final chart of the survey year. For any ties in points, a song with a higher peak is listed first, and further ties are broken by the weeks stayed in the top 40. 168 songs in total had at least one point qualify towards the year-end chart, an increase from the 165 that did so in 2015.

It’s been just about a decade since co-writer Geiger peaked at #3 on my weekly chart with “These Walls”, the larger of his two chart singles. Well, earlier this year, “Treat” peaked one spot higher and stayed there for two weeks. A #1 hit still eludes both artist and co-writer, at least on my chart, but I think it’ll eventually happen. We’ll see how “Mercy” does on next year’s listing.

In the spring of 2015, we all shed a tear (or screamed in all caps on Twitter) when Zayn Malik left One Direction, leaving them to carry on as a quartet. While they landed further down in the Top 100 with “History” and “Perfect”, their former member’s first solo single, which held at #1 for three weeks, lands at #9 for 2016. We’ll see if Malik hits #1 once more with Taylor Swift.

I sent this hit (to the top spot) in late May and early June, just before a song that’s coming in the top five stormed the #1 spot. It was the seventh chart-topping single for the English superstar, who now holds the record for Most #1 Songs with eight. It’s quite an achievement to score two Diamond albums in a row, but she did it with two great sets. She’s back in the top ten soon.

Sivan is one of the newcomers to this year’s top ten, a 21-year-old performer who reached #1 on his first try. Though I knew a little bit about his rise on YouTube and a couple of his EPs, mostly from noting their opening frames on the album chart, this year gave me the opportunity to really dive into his album, which I think is great. Another cut, “Wild”, also made the top 100.

The biggest Country crossover in this year’s Top 100 came in its original form on Rhett’s second studio effort, but that single would soon become available in a pop mix, a duet version with Tori Kelly and as a cover by Nelly, the latter of which made its way to #30 on the CHR/Top 40 listing before Rhett’s version could debut! Still, it exposed the musician to a larger audience.